Sannin the Second
by Brutika
Summary: My take on retelling of Naruto. Pairings will be highly limited, no Yaoi with no Sasuke/Sakura/Kakashi bashing.
1. Chapter 1

"We have to look to the future." Stated the deceptively mild voice once again.

The Daimyo's most _belligerent_ advisor vainly tried to raise an argument again, but quickly crumbled under the force of the Daimyo's aggressive listening. He had long since discovered than nothing unnerved an ambitious subordinate more than giving them your total attention, and regularly used this knowledge to vicious effect.

"B-but Daimyo-sama, should we not crush the land of Wind while we still can?" The Daimyo raised a politely incredulous eyebrow at this last attempt. "Sakumoto, do you mean to tell me you are actually ignorant of what has befallen Konoha? Or do you deem a crippling attack by greatest of the great demons to be a trifling matter?"

Sakumoto waved a hand dismissively." Nonsense. The Kyuubi barely accounted for half of the leaf shinobi. Between them and our Samurai armies, all opposition will be crushed!" A great cheer went up around the warmongers in the court. The ageing Asuma (a/n NOT the jounin) rolled his eyes, the only visible indication of his deep-seated irritation.

"You must go to war!" Sakumoto screamed, drunk with his newfound popularity. Asuma went very still. Some of the elder members of the court flinched involuntarily, having had that unearthly glare directed at them at some point. "Only one of sits on a throne, and yet YOU dare to give ME orders in my court!?" Asuma snarled, inwardly calm as ever. His so-called "black moods" were simply yet another tool he used to cow unruly subordinates; both Sarutobi and Minato regularly informed him that he would have made a terrifying shinobi. Ah well, too late for that, he thought wryly.

Suddenly the herald shouted "Shinobi messenger; one Kakashi Hatake."

In a blur of movement, the was a young boy about a year or two shy of his teenage years. He had an odd mop of silver hair, his hitae-ate was slanted to cover his left eye, and he seemed utterly unaffected by the sombre attitude of the daimyo's court. Everyone looked at him expectantly, waiting for the outburst of eloquence they imagined from shinobi.

"Yo."

While everyone else was still inwardly writhing in confusion, Asuma took advantage of the opportunity to ask the young jounin what the message was.

"Kyuubi has been sealed, but at the cost of Yondaime's life. Sarutobi-sama has retaken the office of Sandaime Hokage, and Orochimaru is starting to cause mischief again."

Asuma knew full well that Orochimaru had never stopped, and that Kakashi had used that card to avert another pointless war; the only indication he gave of this was a knowing smirk.

"Thank you Hatake that will be all. Oh and please inform the Hokage to at least try to make sure whatever poor child Minato sealed the Kyuubi within doesn't have his learning sabotaged too badly. The way things are going" another nasty glare in Sakumoto's direction "he may well end up being the land of fire's last hope."

A/n: There you have it; the prelude of my first story. I really cannot make any promises with update speed, but feel free to let me know what you think; constructive criticism more than welcomed.


	2. Chapter 2

A number of years later...

Naruto Uzumaki trod slowly down the road, oblivious to the looks of scorn he garnered with his mere existence. His experiments with exuberance had ended out something of a failure, as people still treated him as a dangerous animal, with a few exceptions, most notably the old man, Sakura (who treated him as an annoying burden, but did the same to all the boys who weren't Sasuke) Sasuke (who again, treated him with the condescension he afforded all mere mortals) Kiba, and this peculiar man in a green jumpsuit and fishbowl haircut, who managed to shock him out of the exuberant act, and filled him with this inexplicable sense of dread.

But all this was more or less irrelevant, as he was to be chosen for his Genin team today. He had the sinking feeling that whoever his teammates were, he was going to be carrying them, for few of his classmates cared all that much about ninjutsu at ALL. Of all of them, Naruto was equalled only by that creepy bug-wielder, and surpassed only by that arrogant Uchiha. Naruto allowed a scowl to mar his face at the thought of the bastard; how anyone could recieve so much adoration, have such a natural talent for ninjutsu, and _still find something to get whiny about_ shitted him off more than he would care to admit.

He was so caught up in his loathing he didnt notice he was at the classroom door until he Iruka yelled at him for being tardy. Smiling disarmingly, and berating himself for losing track of his surroundings, he made his way to the only available seat, which was wouldn't you know it, next to Sakura and a seat from Sasuke.

'Be cool Naruto. You can deal with it. As long as you don't get paired with the bimbo and the asswipe, it shouldn't be too bad. Anyway, it's not like you'll wait too long, ninja's aren't late.'

It was, he later reflected, fucking _typical._

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"Okay, let them stew enough.", thought one of Konoha's most notorious elite jounin.

Dropping a shadow clone, he had it run around and observe his team-to-be, using a camouflage jutsu he had picked up from a particularly vexing stone ninja, who lost a brother in the same battle that cost the copy ninja his best hadn't had a whole lot of pity for him, but it was quite handy.

Noticing the rush of experience that came from his clone dispersing itself, he critically analyzed the team. The girl was basically hopeless at this stage, he decided. She ignored just about everything anyone but the Uchiha said, and bore all the hallmarks of having joined the ninja corps to follow her crush and to live a romanticised life The pink hair defnitely had to go, he decided with a grimace. The Uchiha was the complete opposite. He didn't move a muscle, and basically acted exactly like he had himself at that age. He wryly wondered if the Sandaime hadn't been trying to tell him something, or at least pay him back for being such a little punk to his _own_ elite teacher.

Naruto was the most interesting. He had dropped all the ridiculously extroverted mannerisms he had been particularly famous for, and he had started to act like a younger version of his father, albeit a version with all rhw grace and calm of one of the seven swordsmen, and more chips on his shoulder than his bijuu had tails. This would be tricky. If he didn't pay enough attention to both of them, one or both of them might very well end up with a certain serpentine traitor.

Oh well, he sighed, I suppose I shouldn't put it off any longer.

Their reactions to his belated arrival were rather telling. Haruno started yelling at him, Uchiha gave him that condescending "your beneath me" look that was kind of surreal to see directed at him (before Itachi joined the ANBU at any rate) and Naruto calmly told him that his life was forfeit if it happened again.

He calmly told them to show up at the training ground at six am sharp and left. But he stayed long enough to feel a startling amount of Kyuubi-laced killing intent.

Well, he thought, this should be interesting.


End file.
